Low Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy

Abstract Low Voltage Scanning Electron Microscopy (LVSEM), defined as operation in the energy range below 5keV, has become perhaps the most important single operational mode of the SEM. This is because the LVSEM offers advantages in the imaging of surfaces, in the observation of poorly conducting and insulating materials, and for high spatial resolution X-ray microanalysis. These benefits all occur because a reduction in the energy E0 of the incident beam leads to a rapid fall in the range R of the electrons since R ∼ k.E0 1.66. The reduction in the penetration of the beam has important consequences. Firstly, volume of the specimen that is sampled by the beam shrinks dramatically (varying as about E0 5 ) and so the information generated by the beam is confined to the surface of the sample. Secondly, the yield 8 of secondary electrons is increased from a typical value of 0.1 at 20keV to a value that may be in excess of 1.0 at 1keV.